Referral link not working – unable to use referral feature

Support Bug Reports
1

Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble with the referral feature. I generated my referral link from my account, but when my friends click on it, they get this error message:

“Sorry, we couldn’t use that code. We couldn’t find that referral code. Please check the link and try again.”

Here’s my referral link:
https://cursor.com/referral?code=WCQAHAJJYT3M

The link was generated directly from my Cursor account, so I’m not sure why the system says the code can’t be found. I’ve tried sharing it with multiple people, and they all see the same error.

Has anyone else run into this issue? Is there a delay before a new referral code becomes active? Or could this be a bug with the referral system?

Things I’ve already tried:

  • Regenerating the link (same code)

  • Having friends copy and paste the link directly

  • Checking the FAQ (no luck)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

227a3b717728e801e34cf495cd5c6f17
227a3b717728e801e34cf495cd5c6f171047×536 56.6 KB

image
image820×560 50.9 KB

2

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

Bug Report Template - Click to expand

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Editor, Tab & Chat (autocomplete, Composer, in-editor agent)
  • Terminal & commands
  • Models, pricing & API keys (availability, Auto/Max, BYOK/Bedrock)
  • MCP & tools
  • Cloud Agents & Automations (cursor.com/agents, scheduled/event)
  • BugBot & Code Review
  • Cursor CLI
  • Cursor Mobile
  • Remote (SSH / Dev Containers / WSL)
  • Account, billing & login
  • Something else…

Describe the Bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

Steps to Reproduce
How can you reproduce this bug? We have a much better chance at fixing issues if we can reproduce them!

  1. …
  2. …
  3. …

Expected Behavior
What is meant to happen here that isn’t working correctly?

Screenshots / Screen Recordings
If applicable, attach images or videos (.jpg, .png, .gif, .mp4, .mov)

Operating System

  • Windows 10/11
  • MacOS
  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal
IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

For AI issues: which model did you use?
Model name (e.g., Sonnet 4, Tab…)

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled
Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
For Background Agent issues, also post the ID: bc-…

Additional Information
Add any other context about the problem here.

Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

6

Hey, thanks for the report. There’s no delay and no issue with your account.

The Refer friends program 50% off for the invited user and a usage credit for the inviter ended on July 23, 2026. Because of that, referral links no longer work, and you can’t generate new ones. When someone opens an old link, they’ll see the error your friends are seeing.

Any credits that were already granted stay on the account they were applied to. We haven’t announced bringing the program back, so I can’t share a date.

If your friends want to try Cursor, current plans are here: Cursor · Pricing The Free plan is a good place to start.